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Cadet-Built Satellite is Lost; Experimental Rocket Carrying It Malfunctions

Posted on: Friday, 31 March 2006, 21:00 CST

By TOM ROEDER THE GAZETTE

An Air Force Academy satellite was apparently destroyed over the Pacific Ocean on Friday when its experimental rocket malfunctioned shortly after liftoff.

The cadet-built FalconSat-2 was supposed to reach orbit atop a rocket fired from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific. Instead, controllers lost contact with the rocket, and the worst is presumed.

"It's a disappointment, but we still achieved many of the goals we had for our program," said academy spokesman John Van Winkle.

The satellite was designed to help the Air Force determine how the atmosphere interferes with radio signals sent from space. The military, increasingly reliant on radio signals from space for communication and navigation, would have used information gathered by the academy satellite to augment other research.

Using solar power, the satellite was to broadcast its findings to antennas at the academy every 90 minutes. It was designed to orbit at 310 miles over the Earth for as long as two years.

But getting the 43-pound satellite to orbit was nothing but trouble from the start.

It was first scheduled to fly aboard one of NASA's space shuttles, but the Columbia tragedy and other problems shelved that option. Other launch avenues were explored, including the latest, which would have put the satellite in orbit atop Space-X, a low- cost experimental rocket.

The 68-foot-tall rocket was designed to put 1,000-pound payloads in low Earth orbit. The launch of the academy satellite from Space- X on its first test flight was to help the Air Force gauge the rocket's abilities.

But Space-X, fueled by kerosene and liquid oxygen, faced repeated launch delays, and it was apparently destroyed minutes after launch on its maiden flight Friday, Van Winkle said.

Van Winkle said that although the orbiter was destroyed, its main purpose, teaching cadets about building a satellite, was accomplished. And although FalconSat-2 is gone, another cadet-built satellite could be in orbit as soon as this fall.

FalconSat-3, designed to probe the Earth's ionosphere, is scheduled for an October flight aboard an Atlas V rocket built by Lockheed Martin.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0240 or tom.roeder@gazette.com

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